-The president was in the Vatican, had this iconic image talking to Vladimir Zelensky
in those two chairs and huddled down, a much different scene than when he was last in theWhite House, as you well know.
Where do you see that?
Is that going to come to fruition?
"Well, I think, first of all, we have to give the president some credit here because there was a really big breakthrough and hasn't gotten that much coverage.
But for three years, these sides have fought and each of them has said, no peace.
We're going to fight until the other guys basically knocked out.
What we've seen now in the last couple of weeks is each side has put down that this is our peace proposal.
Ukrainians did it. The Russians did it.
And now I think the question is to see whether we can actually find some middle ground here for these guys to bring this conflict to a close.
I really don't believe that any person, the eight billion people in the world, I don't think anybody could have gotten this deal done other than Donald J.
Trump. When I say this deal, I mean getting these guys to actually propose a peace settlement.
But it's going to be up to the Russians and the Ukrainians now that each side knows what the other's terms for peace are.
It's going to be up to them to come to an agreement and stop this brutal, brutal conflict.
It's not going anywhere. It's not going to end anytime soon.
And I think for the Ukrainians, yes, of course, they're angry that they were invaded.
But are we going to continue to lose thousands and thousands of soldiers over a few miles of territory this or that way?
I hope both of them come to their senses.
And if they do, it will be because Donald J. Trump, I think, brokered one of the great peace deals of the 21st century."
-I mean, you got the minerals deal, you got that signed, so you're optimistic, can I say optimistic?
Can I say?
"Look, I am optimistic, but it is ultimately, it's hard to say confident, because the Russians and the Ukrainians, they're the ones who have to take the final step.
We got them talking. We got them offering peace proposals. We got the minerals deal done.
I think we're in a place where they've got to say, we're done with the fighting. We're done with losing thousands and thousands of young people.
We're done with this. But only Russia and Ukraine can make that decision. That's not something even President Trump can do for them."
🇷🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦 Война на Украине не закончится в ближайшее время, – Вэнс.